


Foolish Games

by flammablehat



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Community: merlinblitz, Divorce, Family, Gen, Mild Angst, Step-siblings, disrupted childhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 19:00:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1358398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flammablehat/pseuds/flammablehat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Morgana is approaching the age where playing pretend no longer means what it used to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Foolish Games

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from the song by Jewel. Written for week four's prompt at [merlinblitz](http://merlinblitz.dreamwidth.org/): under the covers.

They’d shared a bedroom since Vivienne had moved into Uther’s country house a year previous. Morgana knew she was big enough to have her own room, but she didn’t mind keeping Arthur around. When he went on his secret missions to the kitchen after bedtime, he always stole enough snacks to share. 

Morgana remembered dragging her purple suitcase up the long, long drive to her new home with Gwen curled, purring, around her shoulders. Everything she owned in the world fit into her case. Her mother owned many more things than her, and brought many more suitcases. Their contents seemed to disappear in Uther’s home, spread through room after room until they melted into the background, no longer recognizable. 

She’d thought Uther was like a mountain when he first knelt to greet her, tall and gray and cool like stone. Now, sitting with Arthur under the sheet hung between their beds and pretending she couldn’t hear the shouting drifting up from downstairs, she knew the house was the mountain. Uther was the dragon who lived inside it. 

“Camelot is under attack,” Arthur said, rearranging his toy soldiers behind his model trebuchet. Gwen crouched just past their pillow barricade, watching with alert, orange eyes. She liked to steal Arthur’s soldiers and chew on them while he slept. A few of his men were missing arms; some had lost their legs. “The beast has escaped the dungeons. Open fire!” 

The trebuchet whipped around and flung a paper ball at Gwen, who mewed a protest and chased the ball to the other side of the room. Arthur made an explosion noise and wheeled the trebuchet back behind the line. 

“We’re safe for now,” Arthur said, kneeling up. His head lifted the ceiling of their fort slightly. “Morgana, quick. We need to escape through the secret passage. I’ll cover your retreat.” 

The muffled sound of something shattering downstairs startled them both. They were silent for a moment until the yelling resumed. 

“Come on,” Arthur said, grabbing Morgana’s wrist. “I’ll protect you.” 

“I’ll protect myself,” Morgana said, pulling out of his grip. She wrapped her arms around her shins and rested her cheek on her knees, facing away. “Why don’t I ever get to attack the dragon?” 

Arthur sat back on his heels, their makeshift roof settling with him. Static made some of his hair point straight up off his head, sticking to the sheet. “Because I’m the knight,” he said. “You’re the lady. It’s the knight’s job to protect the lady.” 

“Why can’t I be the knight?” 

“We can’t both be knights,” Arthur said. 

“I want to be a knight,” Morgana said, stubborn. “Or I don’t want to play.” 

“Those aren’t the rules!” Arthur’s voice rose. “Girls can’t be knights!”

“The rules are stupid, then!” Morgana shouted back. “I want to be a knight and I want to protect myself because you won’t always be there and then what’s the point of being a stupid lady!”

She tossed her hair out of her face and was about to climb out of their fort when she noticed Arthur’s eyes had gone wide and his mouth small. Fearing he was about to cry, she sat back down, pulling her knees to her chest again. Gwen sauntered up and rubbed herself against Morgana’s shins, purring, before making her way onto Arthur’s lap. He pet her as she made biscuits on his thighs. 

“Why wouldn’t I be there to protect you?” he asked, small. 

Morgana thought back to nights like this spent playing with Morgause’s battered Ouija board and trying to summon spirits in the bathroom mirrors of Gorlois’ two-story in the suburbs. She remembered the sensation of gentle fingers braiding her hair and plans to go to the movies when Morgause got her license, promises long broken and abandoned somewhere on the road to Uther’s mountain. 

She turned away, brushing at her eyes with her sleeve. “Because you might forget.” 

“You can be a knight,” Arthur said eventually, grudging. “We’ll fight the dragon together.” 

Morgana didn’t respond at first, going still at the sound of footsteps outside their door. The hall light flicked off and the feet carried on, leaving nothing but silence behind them. 

“We should go to bed,” she finally whispered. 

Arthur pushed his toys into a haphazard pile while Morgana collected Gwen in her arms. 

“Morgana?” Arthur called quietly, just as she was beginning to fall asleep. “I won’t ever forget,” he said. “Ever.”

“Neither will I,” Morgana promised, closing her eyes.


End file.
